The more I teach, the more I realize how lucky I am to be a part of the #physed community. Every day, I find myself being inspired and wowed by this group of amazing teachers from around the world. That’s why I’ve decided to take a second each week and highlight one of these incredible educators. This week’s post comes from a very passionate physical educator currently teaching in the United Arab Emirates:

Name: Osama AbujafarWhere Are You From: I am originally from Palestine (born in Germany, raised in Jordan) Where Do You Teach: I teach at Greenfield Community School in Dubai-UAEOne word that best describes how you teach: Inspiring Read More...

This is the second part of the preface to our new blog post series: The Great Unpacking. If you haven’t read part one, you’ll want to start there before continuing to read here. So where were we? Oh yes, we were about to see how to make sure our lessons and units are based on and aligned with each of SHAPE America’s national standards for physical education standards, as shown by Terri Drain in her awesome video.

One of the features of the new #pechat format is a follow up blog post that will provide readers with a summary of the chat, some of the main ideas presented during the chat, and an opportunity to elaborate on the chat. This is only the second of these new #pechat summaries and feedback would be greatly appreciated (in the form of comments below) to help us make sure that these posts are as informative and useful as possible. #PEChat Information

I was trying to catch up on my Twitter feed the other day and came to two realizations:

1. There is a lot of really cool conferences/workshops/events taking place around the world on a daily basis that aim to help physical educators improve their practice.

2. More and more, #physed professional development event organizers are using hashtags not only to connect attendees who are actually at their event, but also to invite teachers who could not make it to the event to be a part of the experience.

I got to thinking about all of these events and thought it would be cool if there was a simple tool to help us all be aware of any PD events taking places, to learn more about the people/organizations hosting these events, and to figure out what hashtags can allow us to be a part of the action. Read More...

One of the features of the new #pechat format is a follow up blog post that will provide readers with a summary of the chat, some of the main ideas presented during the chat, and an opportunity to elaborate on the chat. This is only the second of these new #pechat summaries and feedback would be greatly appreciated (in the form of comments below) to help us make sure that these posts are as informative and useful as possible. #PEChat Information

Here’s a quick trick I picked up from a video that Terri Drain, a Southwest District Teacher of the Year from California (who you will be learning more about over the next few weeks), created a while back. It might sound very simple, but it has already had a huge impact on my teaching and, more importantly, my students’ learning.

The idea here is start each lesson going over that day’s “What”, “Why”, and “How”. Read More...

Here is a real quick blog post to help any physical educators out there who are looking to jumpstart their professional development by joining Twitter.

If you are completely new to Twitter, or if you’re still getting the hang of it, I’ve put together a “Twitter 101” walkthrough (the presentation below) to help you get started on Team #PhysEd’s favourite social network. Read More...

For the last few years, I have dedicated myself to helping physical education teachers get online so they could connect, share, and collaborate with fellow educators from around the world.

The goal was to help build a community of physical educators who were willing to help push each other to be the best teachers they could be and, throughout this process, raise the bar for physical education everywhere.

This process of building a vibrant, engaged, and geographically diverse community was part of the first phase of my overall vision of having every child everywhere get the high-quality physical education experience they need and deserve. Today, with over 10 000 teachers within our community (including some big-league thought leaders), I think it’s time to move onto Phase Two. Read More...

The waiting is over. It is time to announce the winners of the 2014 #PhysEd Awards!

Before we get started here, I would just like to say a huge thank you to everyone who took the time to vote and promote the awards. This year’s nominees are truly exceptional people, and I think it’s important that we recognize the effort these people put into making our community so great. That being said, so many of you contribute to our community on a daily basis. With each tweet, blog post, YouTube video, or podcast you produce, you’re helping raise the bar for physical education everywhere. I truly hope that you continue your amazing work and that, next year, we see even more new faces amongst the nominees.

So it’s been a while since I’ve updated anything on the blog and I thought it was time that I provided you with some updates on the different projects/initiatives that I’m working on.

New Teaching Position

Ok, so the reason I’ve been less than present lately is that I have started my new teaching position at St. George’s School of Montreal. My new school is amazing, yet very intense (in the best of ways). Everyone here is incredibly dedicated to our students and the school’s approach to education (aka the St. George’s Method) is very thorough.

The school uses the Understanding by Design (UbD) framework to ensure that students are not only acquiring new knowledge and skill, but, more importantly, understanding of various concepts that they can transfer over a wide range of experiences. Read More...

After carefully reviewing all of the nomination submissions, it’s time to officially announce the nominees for the 2014 #PhysEd Awards!

Below, you can learn more about each of the award categories and their respective nominees. Once you have made your selection for each award category (you can click on each nominee to learn more about them), be sure to cast you vote using the polling system!

The voting period will last from Tuesday August 11th to Friday August 22nd 2014. Help get the word out by sharing this post on your favourite social networks!

And now, without further ado, here are the nominees for The 2014 #PhysEd Awards! Read More...

The more I teach, the more I realize how lucky I am to be a part of the #physed community. Every day, I find myself being inspired and wowed by this group of amazing teachers from around the world. That’s why I’ve decided to take a second each week and highlight one of these incredible educators. This week’s post comes from a very passionate physical educator currently teaching in Illinois:

Name: Adam MetcalfWhere Are You From: Waterloo, IowaWhere Do You Teach: The Avery Coonley School in Downers Grove, IllinoisOne word that best describes how you teach: Creatively Read More...

For almost five years now, I have been doing my very best to develop ThePhysicalEducator.com into a resource that can help physical educators find inspiration, resources, and connections that will enable them to become the best teacher they can be.

Through my work on this site, I’ve had to venture into different industries and pick up new skills that I never thought I’d ever need. I’ve tried to learn the ropes of social media and online community building, I’ve taught myself the very basics of web design, I’ve dabble in graphic design and animations, and I’ve even done my best to develop skills as a public speaker.

I love the work I do at ThePhysicalEducator.com (and I’m not stopping any time soon), but the work I do here would not be possible were it not fuelled by my absolute true passion: teaching young people how to develop their inner potential and adopt healthy, active lifestyles through quality physical education.

Today, I’ve got some exciting news that I wanted to share with all of you. But first, let me share how I got here in the first place: Read More...

Last year, I decided I wanted to create an awards ceremony to celebrate the amazing physical educators who dedicate themselves to professional sharing through content creation.

As you know, it’s not always easy being a teacher. The amount of energy we pour into our work can be draining at times, so to think that there are physical educators out there who, even after having given their all to their students, take the time to share their experiences, ideas, and insight with the world is truly amazing. These incredible educators deserve to be recognized and that it why The #PhysEd Awards exist. Read More...

The more I teach, the more I realize how lucky I am to be a part of the #physed community. Every day, I find myself being inspired and wowed by this group of amazing teachers from around the world. That’s why I’ve decided to take a second each week and highlight one of these incredible educators. This week’s post comes from the Oregon SHAPE President-Elect and newest contributor to PHYSEDagogy.com:

Name: Collin BrooksWhere Are You From: I am originally from Longmont, Colorado. Born and raised Coloradan! However, I currently live in Bend, OR.Where Do You Teach: I teach at RE Jewell Elementary School in Bend, OR. Bend is an amazing spot for outdoor pursuits. One word that best describes how you teach: Enthusiasm! Read More...

Internationally, physical education has been critiqued as lacking in educative intent, direction or purpose. The critique stems from two observations of the common practice of PE:

Lessons are overly focussed on movement compliance in performance environments where the teacher predominantly uses distinctly directive teaching- in other words, the “teacher says” and the students copy;

Multi-activity program design where students progress through a series of movement experiences without time to develop competency or mastery in the units of work, and where there is no obvious connection or teaching for transfer of concepts and ideas from one unit to the next.

Many students consequently learn what they can’t do in PE rather than what is possible, there is a focus on being physical rather than the educative intent of learning to be physical and understanding movement, and PE and can inadvertently become talent identification rather than competency development. Read More...

Throughout the school year, my school likes to organize themed months. From Nutrition Month to Reading Month, these themed months made our school environment a lot of fun and full of learning.

This year, I decided I wanted to organize my own themed month. After becoming obsessed with my Jawbone UP stats, my original idea was to organize different activities to help students track different statistics relating to their health. However, upon further reflection, I decided that “Quantified Self Month” didn’t have the right ring to it (especially considering that some of my students still can’t tie their shoes... which have velcro laces... c’mon kindergarten!)

That being said, I decided to go with “Wellness Month”. My new idea was to provide students with activities, tools, and prompts to help them develop healthy lifestyle habits. The month was a success and I thought it would be cool to share with you how it came to be! Read More...

The more I teach, the more I realize how lucky I am to be a part of the #physed community. Every day, I find myself being inspired and wowed by this group of amazing teachers from around the world. That’s why I’ve decided to take a second each week and highlight one of these incredible educators. This week’s post comes from a great leader within the #PhysEd community who has done so much to bridge the gap between academics and practitioners:

Name: Ash CaseyWhere Are You From: Yorkshire, UKWhere Do You Teach: Loughborough, UKOne word that best describes how you teach: Dynamically Read More...

There is no doubt in my mind that social media is helping teachers from all around the world be the best teachers they can be. With the #PhysEd community growing stronger every day, I wanted to create a blog post series to help share the stories of teachers whose practice has been influenced by the professional development they engage in via social media. To start this series off, I invited my friend Sarah Gietschier-Hartman to share her journey with standards-based instruction, including a pretty sweet (pun intended) trick she uses to help her students understand where their standards-based grades come from. Thanks Sarah for sharing this awesome post with us!Last spring, while I was planning for the 2013-2014 school year, I borrowed my co-worker’s copy of How to Grade for Learning: Linking Grades to Standards by Ken O’Connor to learn strategies for improving my grading practices. Read More...

For most of us, summer has finally arrived and we get to spend a couple of months recharging our batteries and getting ready for the new school year. One of the things I enjoy most about the summer break is having a lot more time to read. I feel like I have been slowly accumulating books on my bookshelf ever since Christmas... yet haven’t really had a chance to go through all of them!

There’s no doubt that reading can be a great way to keep learning as a teaching professional and help inspire new ideas for our physical education programs. However, getting a chance to discuss all of the cool things we are learning allows us to dive deeper into some of these new ideas and gain a better understanding of them. Read More...

One of the features of the new #pechat format is a follow up blog post that will provide readers with a summary of the chat, some of the main ideas presented during the chat, and an opportunity to elaborate on the chat. This is only the second of these new #pechat summaries and feedback would be greatly appreciated (in the form of comments below) to help us make sure that these posts are as informative and useful as possible. #PEChat Information

The more I teach, the more I realize how lucky I am to be a part of the #physed community. Every day, I find myself being inspired and wowed by this group of amazing teachers from around the world. That’s why I’ve decided to take a second each week and highlight one of these incredible educators. This week’s post comes from a very passionate Canadian physical educator currently teaching in China:

Name: Ken FordeWhere Are You From: British Columbia, CanadaWhere Do You Teach: Beijing, ChinaOne word that best describes how you teach: Developing Read More...

Over the past year, I’ve had the amazing opportunity to speak at a variety of physical education conferences and events. It seems that everywhere I go, teachers are talking about integrating technology into their teaching. However, for a lot of the teachers who are new to the idea, getting started with tech in your teaching can be a pretty intimidating undertaking. Read More...

The more I teach, the more I realize how lucky I am to be a part of the #physed community. Every day, I find myself being inspired and wowed by this group of amazing teachers from around the world. That’s why I’ve decided to take a second each week and highlight one of these incredible educators. This week’s post comes from an awesome physical educator from Maryland:

Name: Jonathan JonesWhere Are You From: Cheverly, MarylandWhere Do You Teach: Whitehall Elementary School, Bowie, MarylandOne word that best describes how you teach: Structured Read More...

It’s no big secret that I love using games in my teaching. Through proper design, games can create learning situations in which students can practice both skills and tactics in authentic settings.

That being said, having students remain focused on their learning objectives during game play can be challenging. I often found that my students would get so caught up in the games we use in class that they would forget why we were playing the game in the first place.

So how do we encourage deliberate practice (i.e. practicing with a focus on improvement/mastery) in game situations during physical education class? Read More...

In this special episode of The #PhysEd Podcast, Joey & Nathan discuss collecting data on student learning, wellness, and their Top 10 lists. Make sure to click through to listen to the podcast and check out the Show Notes. Thank you in advance for rating the show on iTunes! Read More...

Next week, I’ll have the amazing opportunity to keynote the Saskatchewan Physical Education Association’s (SPEA) 2014 Annual Conference in Saskatoon. Having been involved with professional associations for almost seven years now, I know how much hard work and dedication goes into hosting an annual conference. To celebrate the incredible work SPEA has done (just wait until you see what they have in store!), I thought it would be cool to invite their executive members, most of which are full-time physical educators, to share how they teach. I hope you enjoy what they had to say and be sure to connect with SPEA on Twitter/follow the #SPEA2014 hashtag next week to enjoy the conference from wherever you may be!

Name: Saskatchewan Physical Education AssociationWhere Are You From: SaskatchewanWhere Do You Teach: Throughout our great province!Words that best describes how you teach: Organized, Student-Centred, Purposefully, Collaboratively, Engaging, Dedicated, and Innovative Read More...

In a period of expected education funding cuts across all sectors and catastrophic health care expenditure forecasts, developed nations with universal health care should ask themselves to what extent education can be seen as a means of preventative health care. Especially given current data suggests that health care costs will continue to rise above inflation well into the next decade due to an ageing and growing population that has a growing waistline and increased prevalence of non-communicable diseases. For most Australians, this nexus of health and education is explored during the 11 years of compulsory schooling from Years K-10 during their Health and Physical Education studies. Read More...

The more I teach, the more I realize how lucky I am to be a part of the #physed community. Every day, I find myself being inspired and wowed by this group of amazing teachers from around the world. That’s why I’ve decided to take a second each week and highlight one of these incredible educators. This week’s post comes from a passionate physical educator from Pennsylvania:

Name: Rebecca PeterWhere Are You From: Beech Creek, PennsylvaniaWhere Do You Teach: Jamesville-DeWitt Middle SchoolOne word that best describes how you teach: Passionate Read More...

Blogging, if you've never tried it, is an incredible tool for professional reflection. Getting to write about the amazing things that take place in our gyms gives us an opportunity to look back and think about what went great and what could be improved.

That being said, starting your own blog can be an intimidating undertaking. Which platform should you start with? What design should you use? How can you make sure other people read it (aside from your parents, siblings, and/or significant other that is)? Read More...

The more I teach, the more I realize how lucky I am to be a part of the #physed community. Every day, I find myself being inspired and wowed by this group of amazing teachers from around the world. That’s why I’ve decided to take a second each week and highlight one of these incredible educators. This week’s post comes from another great physical educator from Minnesota who isn’t afraid of trying new things in PE:

Name: Matt JohnsonWhere Are You From: Elk River, MinnesotaWhere Do You Teach: Hassan Elementary School in Rogers, MNOne word that best describes how you teach: Progressive Read More...

This blog post is so ridiculously overdue that I was almost too embarrassed to write it.

There are a lot of things I have been meaning to share with you for some time now, but somehow Life kept getting in the way. That being said, after a few days of focused work, I’m finally getting a chance to sit down and write this. Read More...

One of the features of the new #pechat format is a follow up blog post that will provide readers with a summary of the chat, some of the main ideas presented during the chat, and an opportunity to elaborate on the chat. This is only the second of these new #pechat summaries and feedback would be greatly appreciated (in the form of comments below) to help us make sure that these posts are as informative and useful as possible. #PEChat Information

Back in October, we hosted a special edition of #pechat that was part of a research project led by Ash Casey. The chat turned out to be very engaging and the discussions we had on the topic of girls engagement in physical education were incredibly interesting.

On Monday March 10th, we will be hosting part two of this special edition of #pechat. Because this will be part of a research project, there are a few things you need to know before jumping into the chat. Luckily for us, Ash and his team have put together all of the information you could need on his PEPRN blog. Read More...

In this episode of The #PhysEd Podcast, Joey & Nathan discuss Joey’s Shorty Awards run, Nathan’s Google Apps student portfolios, and advocacy in #PhysEd. Make sure to click through to listen to the podcast and check out the Show Notes. Thank you in advance for rating the show on iTunes! Read More...

The more I teach, the more I realize how lucky I am to be a part of the #physed community. Every day, I find myself being inspired and wowed by this group of amazing teachers from around the world. That’s why I’ve decided to take a second each week and highlight one of these incredible educators. This week’s post comes from an incredible physical educator from Minnesota who truly goes the extra mile for his students: Name: Mike DoyleWhere Are You From: Minneapolis, MNWhere Do You Teach: Wayzata High School, Plymouth MNOne word that best describes how you teach: Adapted Read More...

I was messaging with a few old classmates the other day, and found myself getting laughed at for having included a hashtag in one of my texts. You see, instead of typing out “physical education” or “PE”, I wrote #physed. The thing is... it wasn’t an accident. Read More...

One of the features of the new #pechat format is a follow up blog post that will provide readers with a summary of the chat, some of the main ideas presented during the chat, and an opportunity to elaborate on the chat. This is only the second of these new #pechat summaries and feedback would be greatly appreciated (in the form of comments below) to help us make sure that these posts are as informative and useful as possible. #PEChat Information

With Friday's opening ceremonies getting everyone pumped up about this year's Winter Games in Sochi, I can't blame you for missing some of the great physical education ideas that were shared on Twitter this week.

The more I teach, the more I realize how lucky I am to be a part of the #physed community. Every day, I find myself being inspired and wowed by this group of amazing teachers from around the world. That’s why I’ve decided to take a second each week and highlight one of these incredible educators. This week’s post comes from a great educator from North Carolina who I got to meet at the 2013 National PE Institute who just so happens to be a 2013 National Teacher of the Year!

Name: Charla Tedder ParkerWhere Are You From: Fairmont, NCWhere Do You Teach: Fuquay-Varina High SchoolOne word that best describes how you teach: Caring Read More...

I don't know about you, but January was a wild month for me! Between getting back into teaching mode after a two week break, starting up a bunch of new units in PE, and running extracurricular activities for my students... trying to stay on top of all of the great PE ideas being shared online seemed impossible.

That being said, I still wanted to get a new edition of This Week in #PhysEd (TWiPE) out to make it easier to discover what everyone was sharing during the month of January. For the first time, TWiPE is also being released as an email newsletter, so let me know what you think. I will continue to produce these news summaries on a weekly basis, and if enough of you are interested in the email format, I'll have them delivered fresh to your inbox every Sunday morning!

The more I teach, the more I realize how lucky I am to be a part of the #physed community. Every day, I find myself being inspired and wowed by this group of amazing teachers from around the world. That’s why I’ve decided to take a second each week and highlight one of these incredible educators. This week’s post comes from a British teacher currently teaching in Ontario, Canada:

Name: Steven KilleenWhere Are You From: Liverpool, EnglandWhere Do You Teach: Brampton, Ontario, CanadaOne word that best describes how you teach: Gritty Read More...

Adam Howell is a Physical Education teacher currently teaching in Hood River, Oregon. He is the founder of PHYSEDagogy, an awesome blog that explores modern #PhysEd with teacher spotlights, vodcasts, blogging, and discussion. Adam is also a regular #pechat moderator, leading the PST portion of the chat . After reading some of his very interesting tweets on how to create student learning opportunities during a recent #pechat, I asked him if he would be interested in elaborating on his thoughts in a guest post. As usual, Adam didn’t disappoint.

I am an avid professional reader. Over the last few months, nothing has resonated with me more than Closing the Teaching Gap by Don Bartalo (2012). One aspect of the book that has struck me is a new conception of teaching he advocates for: creating better learning opportunities for students. In other words, it is not about what teachers do, but by learning opportunities created. The essential question behind this concept is, do the learning opportunities you give students match how you believe that students learn best? Read More...

One of the features of the new #pechat format is a follow up blog post that will provide readers with a summary of the chat, some of the main ideas presented during the chat, and an opportunity to elaborate on the chat. This is only the second of these new #pechat summaries and feedback would be greatly appreciated (in the form of comments below) to help us make sure that these posts are as informative and useful as possible. #PEChat Information

The Shorty Awards honour the best of social media, recognizing the people and organizations producing real-time short form content across Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, YouTube, Instagram, Vine, and the rest of the social Web.

For obvious reasons, I'm super humbled and honoured that such amazing educators would consider nominating me for the award. To be honest, I didn't really know how to respond to it at first. Although I was extremely grateful, I was worried that promoting my nomination would come off as being a little, well, self-involved. However, after talking it through with my close friends (and my number one fan), I've decided that winning this Shorty Award is something I definitively want and, therefore, I have to work for it. Read More...